


When Minerva McGonagall Let Her Hair Down

by manatee_patronus



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bondage, F/M, Oral Sex, Smut, Tickling, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-07 02:41:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18864082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manatee_patronus/pseuds/manatee_patronus
Summary: In this alternative universe, shy Minerva McGonagall would like to get to know Severus Snape, who has just joined Hogwarts’s instructional staff. Something about the dark, enigmatic man attracts her, but it isn’t until a serendipitous evening out at the Three Broomsticks with friends that Minerva is able to break the ice. Their compatibility immediately evident, Severus and Minerva’s friendship evolves very quickly into something much more intimate...





	When Minerva McGonagall Let Her Hair Down

**Author's Note:**

> This is an alternative-universe fan-fiction, so a few items have been adjusted from the canon to make it work. Most notably, Minerva McGonagall’s age has been adjusted so that she is some 8-12 years younger than Severus Snape, and this fiction takes place a few years after her graduation from Hogwarts and a few years into her professorship at Hogwarts, placing her in her early twenties.

At 7:30 pm on a Friday night in midsummer, Minerva McGonagall was tidying up her tower apartment. She was expecting company at 8:00 pm and she was hoping to impress her visitor.

The cleaning was also an automatic, nervous gesture - by focusing her energy on her physical surroundings, she was able to keep the butterflies in her belly at bay. Minerva hummed under her breath to fill the silence as she straightened the sofa and coffee table in her living room, and placed pillows and cushions just so with flicks from her wand.

Hogwarts was unnervingly quiet during the summer months, when only the teachers remained for curriculum planning and professional development. Since becoming a Transfiguration teacher straight after her own graduation 3 years before, Minerva had always appreciated these quiet times at Hogwarts: she was able to be extraordinarily productive in planning her classes for the following year, and she didn’t have to go up to Gryffindor Tower in the middle of the night to end the rowdy parties that inevitably followed every Quidditch victory. But now, the background noise of hundreds of students tramping through the castle would have been a welcome distraction.

She made a sweeping motion with her wand and all the hidden particles of dust blew off of her kitchen countertops and settled on the floor, where she promptly Vanished them.

She was not sure how much of her apartment would be exposed that evening, and consequently, how much of it she would actually need to clean. She glanced at the clock, which now read 7:46, and proceeded through the door to her bedroom, where she packed the piles of books, papers, and half-dirty cloaks away in trunks and in her closet. She also made her bed, tucking the sheets in crisply at the bottom corners of the mattress. She glanced at herself in her full-length mirror and reached up and behind her head to ensure that her bun was still smooth and firmly in place. As she did so, she felt her favorite silky lingerie whisper against her skin, hidden beneath her day robes. Like her bed, she didn’t know if her visitor would have occasion to see her lingerie, but the prospect titillated her pleasantly.

At five minutes to 8:00, she began to pace in the aisle between her kitchen counter and the back of her couch. Then, at 7:58, someone knocked on her door.

After a moment of hesitation, she strode forward with forced calm and opened the door. There stood Severus Snape, the newest addition to Hogwarts’s instructional staff, looking as handsome as ever with his black, well-fitted robes, his long hair, and his dark eyes that seemed to smile at her along with his mouth.

“Hello, Minerva,” he said in his deep, imperturbable voice. “Nice Friday so far?”

“Quite,” she replied with her standard, offhand coolness. With a gesture of her hand, she invited him in and shut the door behind him. “I finished my planning early, so I was able to work on a bit of research that I hope to submit soon for publication.”

“Ah?” said Severus with interest as they walked toward her couch together. “What research is this?”

It took her a great effort not to grin with pleasure at his genuine show of interest. She sat rigidly beside him on the couch and turned her crossed knees toward him conversationally.

“I’m looking into using Transfiguration as a possible deterrent to climate change, either by transforming the ozone into something more durable (but still permeable) or siphoning off excess UV radiation and transforming it into some other kind of chemical compound. I think my thesis will be that while the latter requires more labor to accomplish, it would ultimately be the more sustainable method in the long term.”

Severus listened intently and then said, “I can’t wait to read it. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you end up saving the world one day, Minerva McGonagall.”

Minerva flushed at the flirtatious way he addressed her by her full name and stumbled a bit on her words when she spoke next. “Tea? Er - would you like some?”

“Yes, please. That would be wonderful.”

Almost gratefully, she stood and left him on the couch. While preparing the tea and emptying a few biscuits onto a plate, she tried not to glance at him too much from the opening in her kitchen wall. However, she couldn’t prevent herself from returning to the same question each time her gaze passed over him: how had she, plain Minerva McGonagall, managed to lure the most charming and attractive professor at Hogwarts into her apartment? As she waited for the water in the kettle to come to a boil, she reflected on the events of the past month which had led to this extraordinary occurrence.

Severus had joined their ranks at the end of the previous school year and begun his training with the sitting Potions professor, Gavin Calderón, who was getting ready to take his retirement. While older than Minerva, Severus was new to teaching. When Severus was not training or shadowing Professor Calderón’s classes, Minerva occasionally passed him in the corridors but otherwise did not have many opportunities to interact with him. His seat in the Great Hall was on the opposite end of the table from where she sat and his classroom and office were several floors below hers. She wanted to get to know him, but her shyness and lack of opportunity prevented her from doing so.

So remained the state of affairs until the Quidditch final of that year, when Gryffindor won for the first time in five years. Minerva had been up in the commentator’s box, keeping a wary eye on her student commentator to ensure that no bias crept into her analysis, but even she couldn’t keep herself from jumping up and down with delight when the Gryffindor Seeker snatched the Snitch from between the Slytherin Seeker’s fumbling fingers, bringing Gryffindor from 10 points behind to a victory with a 140 point margin.

There had been a party in the teachers’ lounge that evening. The long oak conference table had been pushed against one of the walls, where it held a variety of sweet and savory snacks and frosted beverages. Gryffindor tapestries adorned the otherwise bare walls, and upbeat pop music played gently in the background from a radio that Pomona Sprout had brought and placed on the corner of the conference table.

All of the professors came and bid Minerva congratulations for her House’s victory. A few of them conjured roses or other gifts that they pressed into her hands before grabbing plates of food and mingling with the others. As the professors came and went, Minerva found herself surreptitiously looking for Severus, but did not spot him among the others. She felt vaguely disappointed, but was too busy talking with the other professors to wonder much about his absence.

It was almost a half hour before Minerva realized that her arms were full and she was standing awkwardly to accommodate what she was holding. Carefully, she set the flowers, scarlet scarves, and moving, blown-up poster of herself and the Gryffindor team standing grouped around the Quidditch cup on the floor in the corner of the room. Then she moved toward the end of the conference table where clean plates were stacked, intent on having one of Professor Sinistra’s meat pies before they disappeared. However, she suddenly noticed Severus across the room, making his way gracefully and unhurriedly in her direction, greeting other professors as he passed. There was really no reason to believe that he was approaching her and not just moving toward the food like she was doing (he had arrived late, after all, and Minerva supposed he must be hungry) - no reason except for a special, eager feeling she had that he was coming to speak to her.

“Hello, Minerva,” he said when he drew level with her. “Are you enjoying your party?”

Temporarily flustered, it took Minerva a moment to remember why this party might be referred to as hers, but then she hastened to answer, “It’s been nice so far! Were you at the match earlier?”

“Of course,” he grinned. “Most entertaining final match I’ve seen since maybe...my fourth year? I think that was the year that the match went overnight. It was pouring rain, and both teams called timeout to eat dinner on the edge of the field with their respective Houses...In any case, I know I’m late (had to help administer a detention), but I wanted to come congratulate you on the spectacular defeat that Gryffindor inflicted on my House.”

Minerva laughed. “Glad there are no hard feelings. Have you ever played Quidditch?”

Severus shook his head. “Never on a proper team. I did have a broom back in the day and would toss Quaffles around with some of my friends at school, but that’s about it. You?”

“No,” Minerva said. “I’ve always enjoyed commentating though. First started doing it in my third year. You get a great view of the pitch where you can take in the game itself and the excitement of the crowd. And I love keeping track of the statistics - Quaffle drops per player, goal and assist averages, that sort of thing. I guess that is the data nerd in me.”

As their conversation moved to pro Quidditch matches that they’d seen and then to a funny story about how Severus’s mother had climbed up three stadium chairs to catch a dropped Quaffle once at the Quidditch World Cup (she still had the Quaffle displayed proudly in her living room), the last of Professor Sinistra’s meat pies were devoured, but Minerva didn’t notice. Soon, however, their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Poppy Pomfrey and Pomona Sprout.

“Minerva!” Pomona said. “Poppy and I were just thinking - we should go down to Hogsmeade and have a real party before it gets too late!”

“I don’t know,” said Minerva, “I should probably be on site in case my House gets too rowdy tonight. I’ll need to go up and shut it down.”

Poppy blew a raspberry and made an impatient gesture. “Oh, let them have their night of fun. They won the Quidditch Cup for goodness’ sake!”

“Who’s going to monitor the hospital wing while we’re gone?” Minerva asked her.

“I’ve got my aides who run the ward during my off hours,” Poppy said. “They’ll do just fine without me for a bit, plus they know to send me a Patronus if they need me straightaway.”

Minerva looked between their eager faces and then sighed. “Fine. All right. Just let me put this stuff in my apartment first.” As Poppy and Pomona cheered and Minerva bent to pick up her presents, a wave of sudden inspiration made her say to Severus, “You should come with us if you want! It’ll be fun and a little less crowded than the staffroom.”

She was charmed by the expression of bright surprise on his face, presumably at having been invited to join. He seemed to think it over for a brief second, then declared, “Sure! I’ll come along.”

Minerva dropped her presents off in her apartment, put on a light shawl, and then joined Pomona, Poppy, and Severus in the entrance hall. He looked very alluring in a black velvet traveling cloak. His pale, smiling face, inclined toward Poppy as she related a story animatedly to the group, was like a light in the relative dark of the hall. Minerva had heard other professors dismiss Severus as dark and brooding, but they clearly had not noticed the way a smile brightened and beautified his face.

Minerva, distracted when that smiled turned in her direction, tripped on the last stair and stumbled into her friends’ midst. “Whoa, now. Don’t die, Minerva,” Pomona said.

Minerva laughed at her own clumsiness and said, “Well, at least we have Poppy along in case I hurt myself.” The others joined in her laughter before they set out into the night.

It was a cool evening and a light breeze lifted the few loose strands that had escaped Minerva’s bun. As they left the gates of Hogwarts behind them and walked along the narrow, rural road toward the twinkling lights of Hogsmeade in the distance, everyone laughed and joked together, but none of them spoke so eagerly and effortlessly together as Minerva and Severus. Minerva felt spasms of delight each time Severus got one of her references to books or music, and she in turn recognized some of the more obscure books and jokes that he mentioned. Their conversation veered into a nerdy realm where Poppy and Pomona could not follow, though the two of them made sure that Minerva could see their teasingly elevated eyebrows whenever Severus wasn’t looking.

Soon they were among the boisterously cheerful crowd in the well-lit Three Broomsticks. They took a table in the corner by the fireplace (which was empty now during the summer months) and a bookshelf where a random medley of book donations were available for the passing bookworm to peruse.

Madam Rosmerta came bouncing over on her glittering heels to take their drink orders, and then Severus excused himself to the restroom. It was apparently the cue that Poppy and Pomona had been waiting for.

“Minerva!” they exclaimed with indignance. “You shameless hussy!” Pomona added before she and Poppy fell over each other, laughing.

“What are you talking about?” Minerva said coldly, playing dumb but secretly enjoying their teasing.

“Madam, don’t try to fool us,” Poppy wagged her finger. “I see you over there making eyes, blushing, flirting unabashedly.”

“I did no such thing,” Minerva said, but betrayed herself by grinning.

“Such lies!” Pomona roared while Poppy shoved Minerva playfully.

Soon, Severus returned to the table. Poppy and Pomona stopped teasing Minerva and the general revelry continued. Minerva was having an amazing time. Never before had she had a conversation like this with a man - one in which she felt her attraction so clearly reciprocated. Was this how beautiful people felt all the time? she wondered. Did they feel the pleasant glow of admiration on them in all of their conversations? If they did, Minerva decided, the joy of the experience must wear out over time and with repetition. For her, the scenario was new and exhilarating.

Poppy and Pomona grew sillier and louder the more they drank. Severus sipped from a single glass over the course of the evening and maintained his usual composure. Minerva, wanting to keep her wits about her in case she needed to reprimand her students for raucous partying later, drank only an iced strawberry lemonade.

Later on, they followed the example of the groups that started to form an impromptu exodus back out into the starry night. Poppy and Pomona strode ahead in a stiff-legged, military style while singing a pop song together. Their earlier teasing of Minerva was entirely forgotten in their own merry-making. Minerva was glad of this, since she suspected that alcohol had thoroughly washed away their discretion and inhibitions and she didn’t want them to say something embarrassing in front of Severus. She and Severus walked side by side in amicable silence now, occasionally exchanging grins and grimaces during Poppy and Pomona’s off-key performance.

Soon, the dark turrets of Hogwarts loomed above them as they hiked up several hills toward the castle. Not at all surprising to Minerva was the fact that the lights of Gryffindor Tower burned as brightly as ever despite the late hour. She could see the shapes of countless people moving in front of the Common Room window. She rolled her eyes and felt her lips flatten into the severe line they assumed when she was annoyed.

Severus smirked over at her. “Do you have to go put the kids to bed?”

Minerva laughed in spite of her irritation. “Yep. Time for me to go spoil all the fun.”

“Well,” Severus said as they crossed into the entrance hall, “I’m glad you were able to get away to have your own fun, if only for a short while. And I’m very glad you invited me. Thank you.”

They were now standing before the grand staircase, Severus turned slightly toward the dungeon door. Sudden awareness of their imminent parting made Minerva feel flustered again – what kind of goodbye was she supposed to give him? A handshake, a hug, or just a wave? She had never been good at gauging the natural progression of intimacy, so she often remained physically aloof from her friends to avoid a misstep.

“You're welcome,” she said, rocking forward a little on her feet. “We should do it again and...keep in touch, and so on.”

“Most definitely,” said Severus.

Minerva hesitated, then said, “Is it OK if I give you a hug?”

“Of course,” said Severus. She was pleased to see his smile as he moved forward and they embraced. He was a good hugger. With the arms that wrapped around her back, he gently pulled her closer to him. She found her face buried, not unpleasantly, in his soft, chin-length hair, and her nostrils took in his scent. It was unique: he didn’t smell of cologne, aftershave, or anything remotely chemical or synthetic. His scent was organic, clean, and otherwise very personal. It immediately took on an erotic charge and Minerva stored away the memory of it as she and Severus parted ways.

From that night on, she and Severus spoke and corresponded far more often. Something about the evening out had unblocked the barrier of formality and aloofness between them and they both chatted warmly between classes and even occasionally at mealtimes (they moved their customary seats around sometimes, but infrequently enough not to attract gossip from students and other staff members). However, their habit of sending nighttime Patronus messages to each other did not go unnoticed by Dumbledore, who remarked cheerfully to Minerva one day that he was happy to see her silver cat running about the halls more often than usual, and was he correct in observing a special jaunt in its tail recently?

Soon, it was time for the students to leave for the summer, and Minerva and Severus had more liberty to meet in different contexts. A week after the students’ departure, they grabbed plates of food from the Great Hall and wandered down to the lake for a casual breakfast picnic beneath the beech tree. Minerva conjured a red-and-gold patterned blanket, which Severus then decorated with Slytherin serpents, which Minerva then countered with embroidered lions who were eating the serpents. Once they were done with this silliness, they sat down and enjoyed their meal while watching the giant squid extend its tentacles above the water and up toward the sun occasionally. It was during this picnic that Severus had casually proposed that they meet up in one of their apartments for tea some evening after lesson-planning, and Minerva had offered to host, her heart fluttering with excitement.

And now here she was, feeling almost the same conflict she had felt before hugging Severus after their night out at the Three Broomsticks: was this going to only be a tea gathering? Or was there more in store? And was she foolish for not knowing?

She set the tray of tea and biscuits down on the coffee table and rejoined Severus on the couch.

“Cheers,” he said softly before lifting the teacup to his lips. Minerva followed suit and they drank quietly for a few minutes, munching on the biscuits between sips.

“So how was your Friday?” Minerva asked after a moment, remembering that she had made tea before they had finished their earlier conversation.

Severus set his cup down on the tray and leaned back into the couch cushions. “I did most of my planning earlier in the week so that I could focus on tidying up the classroom today, scrubbing out the cauldrons and dusting the ingredient jars and cabinets...Now that Calderón has retired, I can do it three times faster. He would almost do it by hand - taking out each jar and wiping it individually…”

“So you’re not as meticulous when you do the cleaning?” Minerva asked teasingly.

Severus tilted his head to the side with his lips puckered in thought. “I wouldn’t say that,” he said after a moment. “I’m equally as meticulous, I just think I do it more efficiently.”

“Aha, I see,” Minerva said. She exhaled and deliberately reclined into the cushions of her couch as well, leaning on her side so she could continue looking at Severus. She felt slightly more relaxed this way and found that she was breathing deeper. “What did you do with the extra time, since you finished up three times faster?”

“Well,” Severus smiled. “I showered, since it was dirty work and I didn’t want to be gross when I came over.”

“My apartment and I thank you,” Minerva joked.

“But before that,” Severus continued, “I spent some time outside, just walking around the grounds. It’s so nice and quiet during the summer...no students running around, yelling, playing pickup games of Quidditch and the like.” As he spoke, he repositioned himself on the couch and his knee brushed slowly across Minerva’s knee and lower thigh. Her skin, where he touched her, thirsted for prolonged contact with him and the excitement spread further up her body. She took deeper breaths. “I was able to clear my mind and do some peaceful thinking.”

“Ah?” Minerva exhaled again. “And what were you thinking about?”

Severus made eye contact with her. Then he began to move toward her. In a slow, fluid motion, he leaned toward her from his side of the couch. Still breathing heavily, she kept her eyes on his and waited to see what he would do. He placed one of his hands on the couch arm on her left side, and held himself upright with his other arm in the cushions on Minerva’s right. His intoxicating, incomparable scent enveloped her as he leaned across her reclined body. Their faces were inches apart and his robes spilled onto her chest and stomach.

“I was thinking of you,” he said quietly. He stroked a finger from the top of her forehead along her hairline. The finger trailed over her earlobe - she smiled instinctively at the ticklish sensation this caused - before it moved behind her head. “And how much you excite me.”

He kissed her deeply. At the same time, his fingers deftly moved at the back of her head. She had wrapped her arms around his back and was so fully engrossed in the kiss that she wasn’t aware of what his hand was doing until she felt her tightly coiled hair relax as the ponytail holder was removed. His fingers massaged the back of her scalp and then threaded gently through the hair that had formed her bun, straightening it until it was loosely splayed at its full length, which was about halfway down her back. Along with her hair, something else within Minerva came uncoiled as well. She never wore her hair down around others. It was thin and wispy, and she thought that she looked more professional with it tied up anyway. To have this brilliant, gorgeous man looking down admiringly at her - her plain face, thin hair, and unremarkable body - was incredible. She had never thought herself worthy of loving, but the tender way that this man touched her was awakening even the most dormant parts of her body. Every inch of her felt alive.

His hand came back around to the front of her face and he stroked her cheek again, now with her ponytail holder wrapped around his wrist. His finger strayed again to her ear, which she thought was coincidental. But then when she shrugged her shoulders, she saw him smile and realized he must have deliberately been trying to tickle her. As she scrunched her neck, he traced a line of kisses from her cheek in toward her lips again.

His lips were soft and full. She enjoyed feeling them against her own. In the pauses between kisses, he brushed his nose against hers and she rested her cheek contentedly against his. Minerva had never kissed anyone this passionately, and indeed, had never felt passionately about kissing in general. She had never known it could be like this. As she mirrored the movements of Severus’s lips and tongue, glancing her tongue off of his when it entered her mouth, lightly nibbling his bottom lip as he sucked on her top one, she marveled at how much kissing was like a dance. But unlike the exertion of a waltz or a tango, she felt that she could keep this intimate dance up forever without tiring. An infinity passed between their lips and she thought suddenly and inexplicably of the ouroboros, the serpent eating its own tail, which represented eternity.

Severus slid off the couch without breaking off the kiss. Once he was on his feet, he removed his hands from their stroking of Minerva’s face. He slid one of them around the back of her shoulders and the other one beneath the crease of her knees. He lifted her effortlessly and held her against his chest so that her head could rest on the incline of his shoulder. Minerva knew that the seeming effortlessness with which he had lifted her was most likely due to a silent incantation, which she knew Severus to be skilled at, but it made the gesture no less touching or erotic. He carried her slowly toward the cracked door of the bedroom, kissing her forehead as he walked. She practically purred with pleasure, gazing up at the sharp lines of his face. Being held like this made her feel safe and protected, and had stimulated a submission in her which she had not known existed previously.

Soon he was laying her gently on the bed, scooping her hair up and behind her so that it would not get stuck under her back. He crawled onto the bed afterward and kissed her again. His hands found the top button of her robes and began the work of undoing them. As he worked, she ran her fingers through his own silky, black hair. She leaned forward to kiss the top of his head and accidentally bumped her breasts against his face as he was moving lower down with her buttons. She apologized and he laughed, told her not to worry, and planted a kiss in the valley between her breasts.

Her lustrous, silk lingerie was gradually revealed as her robes were unbuttoned, her belly rising and falling with her excitement. He paused in the act of unbuttoning, seemingly to admire how she looked in the lingerie. He lowered himself onto his elbows with his hands resting on her upper arms. His elbows, in turn, were pinning the parted folds of her robe to the bed on either side of her abdomen. From this lower position, he bent his face to the hollow between her ribs, where he observed the silk rising and falling with her breath. He kissed her belly and slowly rubbed his face from side to side. Her eyes widened and the nerves in her body jerked to attention. She felt the profile of his lips and nose through the soft material of the lingerie, moving back and forth across her belly and ribs, kissing at unexpected moments, and it tickled overwhelmingly. Automatically, she tried to get away, but she found that his hands, resting on her upper arms, actually held her down quite firmly, and her pinned robes prevented her from gaining any leverage to rise. On recognizing her trapped state, laughter bubbled up unbidden and escaped from her lips. He paused for a moment, she felt his lips smile through the lingerie, and then he made a contented noise, a sort of “hmmm” far back in his throat. She only had a moment to realize that her laughter had aroused him (and to be briefly aroused by this herself) before he resumed his attentions to her belly and she was lost in laughter once more. With his teeth, he dragged up the short skirt of the lingerie so he could pepper her bare skin with kisses and nuzzles.

“Severus!” she shrieked after a few moments of this. “What...are you - doing?”

He lifted his head and rested his chin on her belly so he could look her in the eyes. His own dark eyes glinted mischievously. “Why, it’s quite obvious, Minerva. I’m making you laugh.”

He started to lower his face again and Minerva smiled involuntarily, but then she interjected, trying to buy herself time to catch her breath. “But - but - you’ve heard me laugh before! You’re quite funny, I laugh at your - jokes, and such.”

“Never so freely, Minerva.” His hands suddenly slipped inward, off of her arms, and his index fingers tickled her underarms. She giggled and tried to bring her elbows into her sides, but her movement was still somewhat restrained by the pinned material of her robes. “You present a very serious and controlled face to the world, and I’ve never seen you laugh unrestrained like you are doing now. Has anyone ever told you that you have a cute giggle?”

Before she could answer, he began to tickle her again, nibbling the sensitive skin around her belly button and gently digging his fingertips back into her underarms. This time, he let up quickly and continued unbuttoning her robes. Once he had removed the last button near her ankle, he spread the cloth fully on either side of her, and then climbed up to help free her arms from the sleeves. Feverishly, as though he was uncertain where he wanted to proceed from here, he kissed her passionately on the lips again and then dropped back down to her hips, where he pulled the strings of her underwear over her hip bones and then down the length of her legs and over each of her feet before allowing them to drop to the carpet.

He kissed the soles of each of her feet, making her legs jerk and her toes bend inward, before climbing up between her legs and scooting them apart. As her vaginal lips parted, Minerva could feel how wet she had gotten. Severus peered hungrily between her legs and used his index finger to draw a gentle line from her vagina up to and around her clitoris, and then back down again. A wave of warmth shuddered through her as his finger made the cautious loop around her clitoris. She moaned and arched her back.

Now that his finger was moist with her arousal, he experimentally moved it slowly around and over top of her clitoris, looking for the places that yielded the greatest reaction. Minerva had never had much patience with herself when attempting to masturbate and so she was equally as interested to find which things she liked best. After a few minutes of quiet exploration, Severus had found the movement that seemed to generate the most pleasure: with his index and middle finger on either side of and slightly above her clitoris, he moved up and down slowly below the clitoral hood. She felt little waterfalls of pleasure each time the skin was pulled up. The pleasure started with Severus’s fingers and gradually radiated up toward her navel and down through her legs, which began to shake. Noticing her shaking legs, he kissed the top of her left knee and she gave a surprised squeal that turned into a giggle. Severus then kissed her knee several more times and nuzzled his face into the soft skin just above her kneecap, which was, if possible, even more sensitive.

While he was holding tight to the calf of the leg that he was kissing, she couldn’t prevent her other foot from kicking and jerking around as she laughed. He transitioned from tickling her to dotting a line of slow and sensuous kisses up the inside of her thigh. She moaned at the feeling of his soft lips on her and then felt a delicious frustration as his face hesitated before her vulva. His hot breath and the tips of his lips barely stimulated her coarse hair. Full of longing and anticipation, she spread her legs so that she could feel his breath and the teasing whisper of his lips directly on her clitoris. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, his tongue gently licked on either side of, above, and then, even more softly, directly over top of her clitoris. Where she was unable to tolerate direct pressure from his fingers before, now she could experience unadulterated pleasure from the attentions of his tongue.

He varied the direction and pressure of his licks to keep her always guessing. In the meantime, he hugged her spread thighs with his arms, and the gentle brush of his lips against her vulva between licks tickled and elicited intermittent giggles from her. She was finding to her surprise that she enjoyed when he tickled her - those sensations seemed to be at least partially fueling the shudders of pleasure that she now felt behind her clit, and on a more psychological level, his clear arousal at her reactions - his persistence and his noises of contentment - made her feel hotter and more sensitive until she could barely tell where her laughter began and her moans ended.

She felt close to orgasm for a few minutes - or rather, she felt very good. She was not sure what “close to orgasm” actually felt like since she hadn’t experienced orgasm yet. After a while, the pleasure started to taper off, and she was left feeling content and peaceful. She wanted to hold him in her arms again. She reached down toward Severus and stroked the top of his head, then cupped her hands on top of his hands (which were resting on her thighs). Tenderly, she stroked the spaces between his fingers with her own.

Upon feeling her hands on his, Severus looked up and met her eyes. Wordlessly, she extended her arms in a request for an embrace, and he obliged at once, crawling up and lying his head on her shoulder, carefully resting his weight between her breasts so that she would not be uncomfortable. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed the top of his head, which was now just below her chin. She massaged his scalp and marveled at his beautiful hair as it slid through her fingers.

“Thank you,” she said. “That felt really nice.”

He stroked her underarms again, making her shiver. “I’m glad,” he said. “I enjoyed it, too.”

“There’s just one problem,” Minerva mused after a few moments.

“Hmm?” he murmured into her shoulder.

She traced his shoulder blades and back muscles through the thin, starchy material of his black robes. “You’re wearing too many clothes.”

“Ah,” he said, and looked at her with a mischievous smile. Minerva took advantage of his body being partially raised off of hers to lift herself into a sitting position against the pillows.

Minerva and Severus maneuvered around on the bed so that Severus’s back was now to the pillows. Minerva pushed him down, gently but firmly, so that he lay on his back, looking up at her with surprise and anticipation. She straddled his hips and began working at his buttons. He massaged her legs and watched her face as she revealed his chest bit by bit.

His pale skin was peppered here and there with endearing freckles and birthmarks. She bent to kiss one of these, which sat in the hollow beneath the left side of his collarbone. He shifted slightly beneath the touch of her lips and had a quick intake of breath. She glanced up at his face and saw a brilliant smile. His eyes were squinted closed as though he were trying to resist laughing. Minerva enjoyed seeing that smile and she relished the knowledge that Severus, too, appeared to be ticklish.

Suddenly one of her own loose hairs drifted annoyingly in front of her face and she paused in her disrobing of Severus to sweep her hair behind her head with both hands. While her hands were thus occupied, Severus suddenly drilled into her ribs with his index fingers. Shrieking with laughter, Minerva fell onto her back and rolled around, trying to dislodge his strong fingers as they jumped around her sides and hips. Severus was sitting up now and somehow her legs had gotten trapped over his shoulders with her feet pointing uselessly in the air. He turned and nuzzled her inner thigh rapidly, and her laughter turned even more higher-pitched and chaotic. He repeated this a few times, stopping for intervals of a few seconds to ratchet up her anticipation ahead of the next onslaught.

Finally, she was able to wriggle loose and roll off the bed and onto her feet. “All right,” she snatched her wand off of her bedside table. “I see we need to do something so that you’re not tempted to sabotage me from the bottom.”

Severus raised an eyebrow at her and reclined back into the pillows with his hands clasped behind his head. “Are you about to introduce some kink into our lovemaking, Minerva?”

Minerva laughed. “Ah Severus, I dare say it’s a little late to introduce kink into this interaction.” She strode around to the side of the bed. “Take off the rest of your clothes,” she ordered. He obeyed at once, glancing at her occasionally as he finished unbuttoning his robe and took off his black silk underwear and socks. Once he was nude to her satisfaction, she said, “Now let me see your hand.”

Severus gave her his left hand and watched her with idle curiosity as she conjured a soft rope cuff around it with her wand, tied the far end of it to her bedpost corner, and ensured that there was no slack in it. She stroked Severus’s bound arm from his elbow to his palm. “Is that ok?” she asked him softly. He nodded and she kissed his forehead before repeating the process with his other wrist and his ankles.

Now Severus was bound tightly, with his limbs stretched toward the corners of her bed like a sexy letter X. He tossed his head, trying to get a wayward strand of his hair to go behind his head with the rest of his hair.

“Here, let me help,” Minerva said. She scrambled onto the bed and straddled Severus’s ribs, then leaned over so that she could brush the strand of hair behind his ear. Unable to do anything with his bound hands, Severus gazed appreciatively at her breasts as they dangled over his face in her lingerie. Minerva might have leaned over a little further than necessary to reach Severus’s hair, precisely because she knew her breasts might have this effect. She pulled her lingerie over her head and tossed it into the corner of the room. She unsnapped her bra and disposed of it in the same manner.

Her nipples were already hard with arousal, but she stroked around the base of her breasts all the same, breathing deeply. Then she leaned over again, more slowly and deliberately this time, and lay her breasts over Severus’s face. He was already straining toward them, his lips parted, and now he turned his head from one side to the other in order to kiss the inner slope of her breasts and the flat part of her chest between them - when he kissed there, she felt an odd sense of calm and euphoria surge through her. His hands twitched in their restraints and his body shifted beneath her as he tried to kiss around the perimeter of her breasts. At the same time, Minerva’s own hands were occupied massaging Severus’s scalp and hair, while still keeping it out of his face.

Wrapping her hand in Severus’s hair, she gently turned his head to one side, kissing his lips and then his right cheek, moving toward his ear. She felt a smile tighten on his cheek as she moved closer to his ear, and his body shifted beneath her again with more urgency. She held his head firmly (but also gently) in place. He began to exhale faster and more haltingly, until she realized that he was giggling, though trying his best to restrain his reactions. Soon, she was kissing and nibbling his earlobe, and his laughter burst from him all at once, higher-pitched than Minerva would have guessed from his speaking voice and contagious. He squirmed beneath her, but she could tell from his occasional moan that her kisses, nibbles, and occasional licks to his ear were arousing him at the same time as they tickled him.

After some time, she kissed back across his cheek, moving in the direction of his other ear. On the way, they exchanged another kiss on the mouth. He pressed his lips hard against hers, his eyes squeezed shut in contentment. As they kissed, and as she tickled his other ear, she felt his erection against her ass. She rotated her hips to rub teasingly against it and delighted in hearing him moan.

She pulled back and surveyed the man who lay splayed out below her. He was a delicious juxtaposition of hard angles and softness, nestled into her crimson sheets. With a finger, she idly traced the line of his jaw and chin and the right ridge of his collarbone (he shrugged his shoulder against the sensitive touch). She brought her finger down the side of his body from there, caressing the spaces between each of his ribs and planting a kiss in the soft area of his belly above his navel. His skin twitched against her lips as more giggles bubbled from his lips. They quickened and leapt in pitch as she proceeded to dapple his stomach and ribs with kisses. She felt herself grow wet again as she lay atop his legs, absorbing his struggles and listening to his laughter. He begged her half-heartedly to stop, but his laughter was also punctuated with ecstatic moans and his penis remained rock hard between her breasts.

Next she kissed each of his knees a number of times. She had always found knees to be one of the most beautiful parts of a man; she wasn’t entirely sure why. Using the very tips of her fingers, she caressed Severus’s legs from the tops of his feet up toward his thighs. His feet twitched as her fingers found the spaces between his toes, and his legs tightened as she progressed up toward his penis. Seeing the squinted smile on his face, she gave a few experimental squeezes to his inner thighs and was rewarded with his surprised laughter and desperate attempts to turn his legs inward out of her reach. She sat on his legs so that they could not thrash or escape. Every so often she would pause, lay her fingers suggestively on another part of his leg, causing him to giggle, and then tickle him in earnest again for another several seconds.

Finally, she resumed her soft stroking of his legs again, giving him a chance to breathe. Beneath the onslaught of her tickling, his penis had softened somewhat but was now quickly growing erect again as she traced teasing circles up toward the bottom of his pubic hair. She reached beneath him and pulled a feather-soft fingertip from his taint up over his testicles. He moaned and arched his back, and now his penis was hard enough to beat someone over the head with. She wet her mouth and gracefully bent over it, taking it up smoothly until the tip grazed her throat.

On her knees, she rocked backward and forward, allowing Severus’s penis to glide in her mouth between her parted jaws. In her motions, she felt a little like the drinking bird desk ornaments that muggles often kept; at the same time, this mundane thought was dispelled by the pleasure of feeling his penis pulsate in her mouth as it grew harder, feeling his legs twitch and stiffen on either side of her, and hearing him breathe heavily as he came closer to release.

Precum leaked from his tip and she used her tongue to distribute it all around the trunk of his penis for additional lubrication. His legs twitched inward at the introduction of her tongue and he moaned, so she threw in more flicks every few pumps, cupping the base of the penis with her tongue and even swiping it over the sensitive head. As his breathing got faster, she held and lightly massaged his balls as well with her free hand.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” he said in an urgent, broken voice. Minerva sat up and began jerking Severus off to stimulate him faster into the climax.

The added speed of her wrist and the pleasurable grip of her thumb and index finger around the trunk of his penis seemed to push Severus over the edge. He moaned, stiffened, and a stream of cum erupted from his penis. Minerva continued pumping for 45 more seconds, until the cum had stopped flowing and Severus’s breathing had slowed.

Minerva used her wand to clean Severus off and then she untied him. He rotated each of his arms slowly and massaged each shoulder, and then beckoned to Minerva. She lay her head obediently on his shoulder and threw her arm across his chest. With one finger, Severus drew slow, ticklish circles on Minerva’s hip and waist. She smiled and squirmed against him. He kissed her cheek softly as she turned. She hugged him tightly, inhaled his scent, and felt very peaceful.

Next, Severus’s finger twirled down between her legs. She was still very wet, and he used the lubrication to slide his finger easily between her vulva without touching her clitoris. The sensation was delightfully teasing, and Minerva sighed and opened her legs with yearning.

“I want to try something,” Severus whispered against the side of her face. He pulled his arm from beneath her head and encouraged her to get comfortable against the pillows. “Do you mind if I put on music?”

“Not at all,” Minerva said. Assuming Severus liked good music, she thought it would make a nice background for them to relax against; they could simply lie, cuddle, and appreciate the music without needing to talk. Her brain felt too overloaded with pleasure for her usual level of snarky conversation.

Severus waved his wand, perhaps to summon one of his discs and insert it into her stereo (Minerva was too busy stroking Severus’s chest to pay much attention). Then the song started, and she was surprised. She knew this song. It had been a while since she had heard it, and she couldn’t place the title or the band yet, but the gentle, bittersweet, acoustic guitar chords at the beginning of the song touched her in a raw and buried place. She swallowed against a strange tightness in her throat.

Severus was now up on his elbow, leaning over the side of her body. With one hand, he stroked her face and cupped her cheek. His pointer finger from the other hand was now rubbing more persistently around her clitoris.

Minerva smiled as his finger passed near the sensitive hollow of her ear, and then recalled what he had said about wanting to try something. “Is this from an article in Witch Weekly?” she asked ironically. “Put on some romantic music, have the girl get comfortable, and caress her face - the recipe for the female orgasm? All you’re missing are the candles and flower petals.”

“Nope, no article,” he said. “I just thought it might help to get you feeling relaxed.”

Minerva considered this. It was true that she did not relax very often. She knew herself to be uptight and controlling, even with regard to her own feelings; this trait allowed her to project unwavering professionalism in her work. Maybe that was why this familiar music was causing her disquiet along with nostalgia...it was pulling up some emotion that she could not suppress in the usual manner.

She winced a little as Severus rubbed too hard against her clitoris. “I’m sorry,” she said automatically. She wished her body worked the way it was supposed to.

He put his face close to hers. “Don’t be sorry,” he whispered. “I want this to be pleasurable for you.” He resumed rubbing her, much softer. She shivered, both at the pleasant touch and the kind way he spoke to her.

A male voice suddenly sang out over the sparse guitar chords, and Minerva finally recognized the song. It was “Heavy Heart” by the Mellow Mermen, a band that Minerva had listened to extensively as a young girl. Their music was folksy and often melancholy. She had had a crush on the singer-songwriter of the band (she smiled at the memory), a tragic-looking man with soulful eyes and short black hair. What she remembered most about them, however, was how she would play their music when she felt most lonely and unlovable. As she watched her peers at Hogwarts pair up left and right, go to Hogsmeade weekends together, and invite each other to dances, she had felt increasingly insufficient. She had poured herself into her studies and excelled, but that did not fully replace her desire to love someone. So she would cast a noise muffling charm on her four-poster bed, draw the curtains, and play through a Mellow Mermen album while lying down, dreaming that a man might one day feel for her the same way that this singer had felt for the woman or women that he wrote about in his songs.

This particular song was about two flawed people loving each other imperfectly. The message of the song had no bearing on the present moment, but it brought tears to Minerva’s eyes nonetheless, blurring her vision of Severus’s lovely, freckled body. She was thinking of her twelve-year-old self lying in a stupor and listening to this music. If only that girl knew what was to come, and how it would surpass everything she hoped for. She felt a dangerous tenderness pulsing through her veins.

She felt lips on her cheek, kissing away one of her tears. “Are you OK?”

Minerva was overwhelmed with a thirst to kiss Severus again. “Yes,” she said. “Just happy.” She moved her face up and met his lips with hers, first in a close-lipped kiss, then pulling back to open their lips in unison and exchange a gentle touch of tongues. Reassured that she was fine, Severus resumed his stimulation of her clitoris. There was hair on her face; she could not tell whether it was just Severus’s or some of her hair as well, but she could smell his gorgeous, organic scent and she felt that she would never tire of the delicious pout of his full lips against hers.

As she kissed him and the Mellow Mermen’s sad chorus washed over them, a strange thing happened: She felt something like a pleasant fire behind her clitoris. It was like the feeling of stepping into a Floo powder fire, but concentrated. Her breathing got very quick and shallow. She stopped kissing Severus and looked at the ceiling, focusing on this new sensation and trying to see it through - surely this must be what the build-up to an orgasm feels like, she thought to herself - but after a few moments, she felt the fire fade and even started to feel her usual hyper-sensitivity come back.

Severus kissed her cheek and she turned to kiss him on the mouth once more, threading her fingers through his beautiful hair. Her breathing quickened and once again she felt the building pleasure behind her clitoris - along with a sudden surge of understanding. This time, she didn’t stop kissing Severus. When her breathing got too obnoxious, she turned only briefly from his lips before pressing herself to them again. It was an odd thing: she had never fantasized about kissing or found it to be a particularly intriguing act, until tonight. She didn’t want it to end, and she felt more and more excited each time their lips came back together. It was as she was turned briefly away that one of her shallow breaths turned unexpectedly into a shrill cry and she found her legs and arms locked around Severus like she was a mousetrap that had been triggered. Peace and contentment flowed and throbbed through her and her skin felt warm all over.

Severus held her against him, kissing her forehead occasionally, and did not speak until she broke the silence: “I think that might have been it,” she said.

He made his pleasure-noise again, Hmm. “Yes, I rather think so, too. How do you feel?”

“Amazing,” Minerva said.

“Good.” He gave her a squeeze and stroked her hair. After several minutes, Minerva gradually loosened her grip on Severus and simply cuddled him while the remainder of the Mellow Mermen CD played. She found herself yawning and starting to drift off, so when the CD finished, she recommended that they turn off the lights and get ready to sleep. They took turns in the bathroom and were soon back under the covers, Minerva spooning Severus as he faced away from her.

On the wall beside her bed was the picture of Minerva and her Quidditch team from the previous semester, grouped triumphantly around the Quidditch Cup. Minerva watched the picture happily as its inhabitants gave each other high fives and as the Beaters and Keeper lifted the Seeker, Jamie Burnett, up into the air. The Chasers, two of them her best students in the 6th year, stood next to her, all holding the Quaffle to pose for the picture. A totally random question occurred to Minerva.

“Severus?”

“Hmm?”

“That Quaffle your mum caught, did she get it signed after the game?”

Severus chuckled. “Yeah. She almost didn’t, because she was afraid they wouldn’t let her keep it, but I convinced her to ask in the end. It was a unique match because both teams had some of the highest-ranked Chasers in the world, so all the excitement of the match was focused on them and how many goals would be scored, whether their most successful formations and passes would still work against each other, that sort of thing. No one cared as much about the other players, they simply weren’t as famous for some reason. Anyway, it was the perfect match for mum to get a Quaffle signed. In the end, she got the signatures of the 3 Swiss Chasers and Japan’s team captain and Chaser Uchiko Yamamura.”

“Wow,” breathed Minerva. She had had a poster of Uchiko Yamamura in her school days. She was considered the ultimate badass at that time. She held the record for the most goals scored during a single game, and she had once used the Quaffle as a shield to repel a Bludger that a rival Beater had whacked at her head. The Bludger had then rebounded and unseated the Beater in question. “She was my favorite Quidditch player, back when I followed the World Cup more closely.”

“Oh really?” Severus yawned and adjusted his head on the pillow. “You should come round my mum’s sometime. She loves having an excuse to take out the Quaffle and tell that story. And I know she’d love to meet you.”

Severus continued elaborating about how this hypothetical visit would play out: his mum would probably make key lime pie, he would have to make a point to ask her in advance not to pull out photo albums from his childhood, and so on. Eventually his voice trailed off sleepily and his breathing became deep and peaceful.

Minerva held him and breathed in the scent of his warm skin. She would never admit it to Severus, but the casual invitation to visit his childhood home and meet his mother had touched her. She was eager to know the woman who had raised him with such kindness and wit, and to walk between the walls that had sheltered him in his youth. She yearned to become closer with this man who had so charmed her, to grow familiar with his routines, traditions, and quarrels, the varied threads that made up the embroidery of his beautiful life.

The future, presumably populated with more evenings like this one, had never seemed so benign and exciting to Minerva. The promise of it rested upon her as a tangible sweetness, like the afterglow of Severus’s kisses, as she finally succumbed to slumber.


End file.
